Occupy Wall Street protesters picked the wrong target

I found the recent letter regarding the New York City protesters by Max Obuszewski amusing ("Wall Street protests highlight police brutality," Oct. 6). The kids protesting on Wall Street have spunk. Unfortunately, they're protesting in the wrong place. The problem stems from Washington, not New York.

Wall Street plays by the rules it's given (other than those financiers who land in jail), and Washington sets the rules. The Clinton administration allowed Fannie and Freddie to de-leverage from 8-1 to 40-1, the Bush administration doubled down on the bubble and did nothing about the bundled sub-prime loans until it was too late, and the Obama administration has done nothing tangible to prevent it from happening again.

Those kids shouldn't blame Wall Street for trying to get as much as they can under the rules Washington sets down. If they want an explanation about getting as much as you can under the current rules, they could just turn to the union forces that have joined them in protest and the union cops beating them up for their perspective. Everybody tries to get as much as they can. That's human nature. If you want to change how much someone can get legally, you have to change the law. If they want to do that, then they need to make the three hour trip down Interstate 95 and protest in front of Congress and the White House.

They'd find the cops much more respectful, as D.C. police officers are used to this sort of thing and handle it well. Either those kids don't know enough to do that, or they don't want to for political reasons because they don't want to embarrass President Barack Obama and they just don't know where else to go. Either way, they look pretty foolish right now.